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Rights groups urge world leaders to boycott 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/reuters/02/03/olympics-2022-beijing_1.jpg"/><figcaption>A man walks past a board with logos of 2022 Winter Olympic Games, at a souvenir shop under renovation in Beijing, on January 29, 2021. <em>Tingshu Wang, Reuters</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>A coalition of campaign groups issued an open letter Wednesday calling on world leaders to boycott the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics over China&#x27;s rights record.</p><p>The Games are scheduled to begin on February 4 next year, just six months after the delayed summer Tokyo Olympics, but preparations have been overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic.</p><p>China is also facing global scrutiny over a range of issues, notably the mass internment of Uighur Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang, and its clampdown in Hong Kong.</p><p>About 180 campaign groups signed the open letter, which called on world leaders to boycott the Beijing Winter Games &quot;to ensure they are not used to embolden the Chinese government&#x27;s appalling rights abuses and crackdowns on dissent&quot;.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/02/03/21/olympics-masks-and-no-singing-organisers-unveil-rules-for-covid-19-games">Tokyo Olympics: Organizers to require masks, bar singing as part of COVID rules</a></li></ul><p>The coalition, which includes the World Uyghur Congress and International Tibet Network, said that since Beijing was awarded the Games in 2015, &quot;President Xi Jinping has unleashed an unrelenting crackdown on basic freedom and human rights&quot;.</p><p>In a statement to AFP, the International Olympic Committee said that concerns raised by campaign groups, including over rights, &quot;were and are raised with the government and local authorities&quot;.</p><p>Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China&#x27;s foreign ministry, said the 2022 Games would be &quot;a wonderful and outstanding event&quot;.</p><p>&quot;At the same time, I would also like to point out that politically motivated attempts to interfere or disrupt the preparations of the Games is very irresponsible,&quot; he said of the open letter.</p><p>&quot;Such a move won&#x27;t be supported by the international community and won&#x27;t succeed.&quot;</p><p>China has been under growing pressure, particularly over the fate of its Uighur minority.</p><p>Rights groups believe that at least one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslim minorities are incarcerated in camps in Xinjiang.</p><p>After initially denying the camps existed, the Chinese government abruptly acknowledged them, saying they were vocational training centres aimed at reducing the allure of Islamic extremism.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zjk4wqxLpjI?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>China has faced global scrutiny over a range of issues, notably the mass internment of Uighur Muslims, and its clampdown in Hong Kong.</p>

China has faced global scrutiny over a range of issues, notably the mass internment of Uighur Muslims, and its clampdown in Hong Kong.